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MULTIMEDIA
May 27, 2012
 
 
 
 
 
 

Armenian migrants dragged into politics in Turkey

20 March 2010 / DAREN BUTLER, REUTERS
Grey-haired Lia Khachatourian is determined to keep earning money in İstanbul for her family back in Armenia, undaunted by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s threat to deport illegal Armenian migrants. “I’m not scared. I have to work here as the situation in Armenia is very bad,” said the 60-year-old care worker, dressed in black, as she popped into a call shop to phone home.

Other Armenian migrants in the poor Kumkapı district voiced more worry over Erdoğan’s threatened retaliation following votes passed by US and Swedish lawmakers branding World War I-era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.

Neighboring Armenia, which last year signed a deal with Turkey to overcome a century of hostility and reopen their border, on Thursday compared Erdoğan’s warning to the language that preceded the 1915 mass killings.

“One hundred years have passed and the subject has been opened up again and now it is us who are scared,” said a 56-year-old Armenian housekeeper and mother of two, who declined to give her name for fear of jeopardizing her livelihood. “The prime minister spoke very harshly. We want nothing to do with politics. We just came here to work. There is no economy in Armenia,” she said after speaking to relatives back home.

Like many Armenian migrants in İstanbul, the former teacher came from the Armenian city of Gyumri, following an earthquake in 1988. She said relatives were now expressing concern about her situation after Erdoğan’s comments.

Erdoğan told the BBC Turkish service there were 100,000 Armenians living illegally in Turkey alongside a 70,000-strong Turkish-Armenian community. “If necessary, I may have to tell these 100,000 to go back to their country because they are not my citizens. I don’t have to keep them in my country.” Erdoğan went on to blame the Armenian diaspora for causing problems between Western governments and Turkey, a NATO partner and candidate for EU membership.

Staying home

The number of Armenian immigrants in Turkey is unknown but Turkish-Armenian groups say Turkish politicians inflate numbers of illegal workers and threaten expulsions whenever tensions escalate between Ankara and Yerevan. According to research last year by the Yerevan-based Eurasia Partnership Foundation, some 94 percent of the irregular Armenian workers in Turkey are women working in housekeeping, nursing and childcare.

Ömer Erçetin, 30, who runs one of the many call shops in Kumkapı used by Armenians to phone home, said an Armenian colleague had refused to come to work fearing a police raid. “It has been empty here for the last couple of days but normally it is full. People are scared and don’t go out,” he said. Two middle-aged Armenian women fled from the shop when told a journalist wanted to speak about Erdoğan’s warning.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said on Thursday that statements like Erdoğan’s could “lead to absolutely negative consequences.” Last year’s deal between the two countries has yet to be ratified by their respective parliaments and the governments have accused each other of trying to rewrite the texts.

The deportation threats will be frowned upon by European governments that have voiced support for Turkey’s EU bid, and have backed the peace accords with Armenia.

But Armenians and Turks in the Kumkapı area said relations between the two communities were good. “The Turks are good people and they like us. I have no problems or fights with anyone here. There is really nothing to worry about,” said Arsen Barseghyan, 22, who travels between Turkey and Armenia working in the cargo business.

 
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© Feza Gazetecilik A.Ş. 2007, Ahmet Taner Kışlalı Cad. No: 6, Bahçelievler - İstanbul 34194 Turkey, +90 (212) 454 1454, +90 (212) 454 1497(fax)